Do the inner cam bearings look damaged? Any missing sections of the bearing cage? Make sure there are no loose parts rolling around inside your cases from a damaged cage that hold the rollers in place

Regardless of how the OEM bearings look, I would replace them with the better Koyo (formerly Torrington) captive needle bearings. They are cheap, but you need a good tool to replace them..


As to those cams, the general rule of thumb is that if you can feel it with your fingernail.... it's damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced.

I wouldn't run those cams just based on the way they look..

 

The INA s look okay - but I have Koyos ready for replacement - I think the INAs would have failed sooner than later if I had not went in there - guess I;ll o with Andrews TW21 cams - I do a lot of in town ridin - unless there is a better choice usin stock springs - I like the EV27 in my 92 softail - the 21 seems similar 288121 is the Andrews number - unless I can find a stock rear cam - maybe someone on the forum as a good takeoff cam set?????

 

I won't be able to crawl up into the attic until tomorrow, but I MAY have the OEM cams from my 2003 EFI Heritage. I put a big bore kit in it at 6 months old & 3000 miles. If I have them, they should be in great condition. If I have/find them, I can let you have them for shipping costs..

I have done so much work to that bike over the years.... all for the fun of it.....

I know I will never use those OEM cams again.

 

Looks like the EFI and carb cams are the same - I used to be able to find takeoff parts all over the place back when garage building was king - now most stuff gets bought up locally by sellers for eBay and other outlets - I am sure a few folks on the forum ave some OEM cams (A stamp) - as an old timer - rebuildin sporties and big twins since 74 - the TC88 is a bit of a beast in terms of toolin and costs - pretty much lookin at a grand to uprade the cam chest - w/o labor if you do the plate, gears and cams/lifters......I was buyin complete shovels and ironeads for a grand up until Senior and Pauli Junior hit the scene - not sayin its a bad thing that prjces went up - but fewer machinists are around these days to carry forward the art - and the modern bikes are a bit "plug and play" making it not cost effective to invest in jigs and tooling - my 2003 is a B motor - holy crap - settin up for a full motor rebuild in my sop would be a major task.......

 

I have never drained the oil tank on my '05 FXSTD when opening up the cam chest. There is a rubber connector in the horizontal line connecting the oil tank to the feed line to the cam chest; #25 in the diagram below. I use a pair of hose pinch off pliers to lightly pinch that line to stop any gravity drain while the cam chest is open. Thre will be some residual oil in the cam chest so some foil as shown in Hattitudes post will prevent a mess.

Totally agree to replace OEM bearings and definitely would not run those cams. Alignment pins are handy but not necessary to align the oil pump with the crank. Start two of the fasteners at opposite corners, finger tight, plugs, trans in fifth gear and rotate the rear wheel; the pump will align to the flat on the crank nose and center on the crank with a couple of rotations.

 

Yeah - clampin that would work but the line is old and I wanted to avoid pullin that apart too......so now I am curious about what "centering" really does - I figured it found the center point for the rotor in the pump where it seats at the perimeter of the body- I built a few late ironeads with te gerotor pump and I dont recall doin anything unique - so what is being centered - the rotor - the body - ???

 

The pump is centered on the crank as well as the gerotor flats aligned with the flat on the nose of the crank. If that hose is old and brittle, might be a good idea to replace it. Pinching that rubber connector can come in handy if the bike is put away for a while, like winter, to keep all the oil from draining into the sump. Just have to remember to "unpinch" when ready to get back on the road. Like I said in my previous, the alignment pins are handy but by no means necessary to alignt the pump. Remember, it is not rocket science.

 

Were it my bike, I'd be replacing the camshaft and bearing because of the visible damage on that camshaft journal.

I'd have already planned on replacing the bearings because the oem design wasn't very good.

 

so oil pump and gerotor looks like this

scavenge shows grooves - feed looks pretty normal to me for a 37K mile bike - since it is only rubbed in one spot on the housing I wonder if tye alignment was off when assembled at factory - this cam chest was not opened before I bougyt it

 

Could be several things, if possible measure your runout... if your runout numbers ar ebad, and the cause of the lopsided wear, you'll do it again to a new pump if you replace the old pump...

The 2003 engines usually had OK runout.

It does look like something may have "gone through" that pump though....

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